Extra Features

This is a short category as the DTV HDDVR does not have any extra features (at least at this time, it doesn't). Tivo has free software you can install on your home computers (Mac or Windows) to allow your photos and music (MP3 only) to stream to your networked Tivo. It's pretty cool, especially since your TV is most likely connected to a sound system.

[Update: I later saw on DirecTV's website that they do support networked music and photos, but only on computers with Intel Vii technology. That means no Macs and not even all PCs. Useless.]

Tivo also has other networked features like moving shows between Tivos, support of free online photo websites (oddly, flickr is omitted), a few networked games, movie listings, weather info, a podcast listener, and more. Unfortunately, the quality of these is all over the place, and the features are often so limited as to be useless. For example, the podcast listener doesn't remember where you left off, so you can't listen to partial podcasts. The movie listing widget sounds great: but I'm in a rural with only one local theatre and the widget won't list any other theaters for my Zip code. If I want theaters closer to Portland (where I often go to see movies), I have to put in separate Zip codes for each city. At least with online movie listing sites I can specify the range of the theaters in miles or customize my listing with certain theaters I frequent.

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